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# Does When We're Born Make Us Who We Are? A New Way of Thinking About Crime and Success in America
- URL: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/robert-sampson-adam-gopnik-interview/
- Published: 2026-04-08T18:04:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-07T18:31:31.000Z
- Description: The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik interviews Harvard sociologist Robert J. Sampson.
- Author: Vital City
- Tags: Events, #ImagesUploaded

Many people believe that individual character determines outcomes. But new research challenges this idea. In a three-decade study of over 1,000 Chicago children, sociologist and Vital City contributor Robert J. Sampson finds that the era into which you're born matters as much as who your parents are. Children born a decade apart — from identical backgrounds and neighborhoods — experience dramatically different life trajectories. 

Join Vital City, NYU Wagner and the Russell Sage Foundation for a conversation between New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik and Robert Sampson about his new book, [“Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans.*”*](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987548?ref=vitalcitynyc.org)

Featuring remarks from 

Polly Trottenberg, Dean, NYU Wagner

Elizabeth Glazer, Founder and Co-Editor, Vital City

Bruce Western, President, Russell Sage Foundation

**Monday, April 27 | 5:00 PM doors, 5:45 PM program** 

NYU Wagner Main Event Space, 105 E 17th St, New York, NY

**Sign up to attend in person using this form.**